2017-06-30

A "Tree" of Genealogy

The quest for the first "family tree" has been one of my scholarly interests for years. Readers of this blog will know by now that stemmata, ramifying diagrams with ancestors at the top, were invented in antiquity (provedly before 427 CE). The inversion of those diagrams into family trees with ancestors as the roots and their descendants as boughs and leaves was a slow transformation that took well over a thousand years.

One of the most interesting way-stations in that process is the invention of the term "family tree," where "tree" in its medieval sense simply meant a diagram that could be scaled up at will (just as a tree or a crystal grows) without specifically denoting that the diagram must visually resemble a natural tree.

Christine Klapisch-Zuber in her major work, L'Ombre des Ancêtres, fixes the first fusion of "genealogical" and "tree" in Latin in 1312 by Bernard Gui, a Dominican inquisitor and bishop in the south of France, who wrote a history of the French kings.That means that in the latest wave of Vatican digitizations, special interest attaches to a 1369 translation of this work into French by Jean Golein.

This forms the second part of the codex Reg.lat.697, which can now be consulted online. La Généalogie des Roys de France commences at folio CXIIr. Note the flowers and tendrils which indicate that the idea of arbre is already playing on the minds of the artists. As one sees in the example below, the main line of kings is at centre-page, descending page by page through the book, and little roundel-link stemmata of each king's non-monarchical relatives are set off to one side.


This is not Golein's autograph of course. That, according to Delisle, is in the parliamentary library in Paris. The first part of the Vatican codex contains Golein's French rendering of the Flores chronicorum, also by Bernard Gui, which is a history since the time of Jesus of the popes and Roman emperors. Reg.lat.697 is wonderfully illuminated and offers us this notable conclave of cardinals:



The full list of digitizations this week (lacking 25 extra items that slipped online on Friday morning as I was finishing) follows:
  1. Borg.copt.67,
  2. Borg.sir.16,
  3. Chig.C.VIII.230, with fine initials and miniatures including this Annunciation (though I could have sworn this angel has a horn!)
  4. Ott.lat.1302,
  5. Reg.lat.652,
  6. Reg.lat.653,
  7. Reg.lat.654,
  8. Reg.lat.659,
  9. Reg.lat.660,
  10. Reg.lat.664,
  11. Reg.lat.676,
  12. Reg.lat.678,
  13. Reg.lat.691,
  14. Reg.lat.697, translation into French by Jean Golein of the Flores chronicorum of Bernard Gui (above)
  15. Reg.lat.707,
  16. Reg.lat.709,
  17. Reg.lat.725,
  18. Reg.lat.731,
  19. Reg.lat.735,
  20. Reg.lat.737,
  21. Reg.lat.740,
  22. Reg.lat.746,
  23. Reg.lat.759,
  24. Reg.lat.761,
  25. Reg.lat.766,
  26. Reg.lat.770,
  27. Reg.lat.803,
  28. Reg.lat.864,
  29. Reg.lat.880,
  30. Reg.lat.882,
  31. Reg.lat.888,
  32. Reg.lat.891,
  33. Reg.lat.913,
  34. Reg.lat.935, Reuilion
  35. Sbath.251,
  36. Urb.lat.843.pt.1,
  37. Urb.lat.843.pt.2,
  38. Vat.gr.1312.pt.1,
  39. Vat.gr.1312.pt.2,
  40. Vat.lat.1299, Expositio in Iohannem, anon.
  41. Vat.lat.1302,
  42. Vat.lat.1310,
  43. Vat.lat.1317,
  44. Vat.lat.1325,
  45. Vat.lat.1382, Bottoni, Glossa Ordinaria, with some fine arbor juris diagrams, one of which has this interesting detail in the bottom panel:  
  46. Vat.lat.1384,
  47. Vat.lat.1389,
  48. Vat.lat.1430,
  49. Vat.lat.1436,
  50. Vat.lat.1445,
  51. Vat.lat.1451,
  52. Vat.lat.1453,
  53. Vat.lat.1455,
  54. Vat.lat.1481, Priscian
  55. Vat.lat.1483, Priscian
  56. Vat.lat.1543, Macrobius
  57. Vat.lat.1547, Macrobius, commentary on Dream of Scipio
  58. Vat.lat.1567, Homer, Iliad, in Lorenzo Valla translation to Latin
  59. Vat.lat.1587, Horace, works, 12th century
  60. Vat.lat.1591, Horace, poetry
  61. Vat.lat.1599, Ovid
  62. Vat.lat.1604, Ovid, Fasti, 12th century
  63. Vat.lat.1605, Ovid, 15C
  64. Vat.lat.1618, Statius, Achilleidis
  65. Vat.lat.1623, Lucan, Civil Wars
  66. Vat.lat.1642, Seneca, tragedies
  67. Vat.lat.1643, Seneca, tragedies
  68. Vat.lat.1654,
  69. Vat.lat.1681, Boninius Mombrizio
  70. Vat.lat.1687, Cicero, letters
  71. Vat.lat.1690, Cicero, letters, dated 1462
  72. Vat.lat.1692, Cicero, letters, 15C
  73. Vat.lat.1693, Cicero, rhetorical works
  74. Vat.lat.1702, Cicero, rhetorical works
  75. Vat.lat.1712, Cicero, rhetorical works
  76. Vat.lat.1714, Ad Herennium
  77. Vat.lat.1718, Ad Herennium
  78. Vat.lat.1724, Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum
  79. Vat.lat.1726, Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum
  80. Vat.lat.1727, Cicero, De finibus bonorum et malorum
  81. Vat.lat.1728, Cicero, Tusculan Disputations
  82. Vat.lat.1733, Cicero, Tusculan Disputations
  83. Vat.lat.1734, Cicero, De Officiis
  84. Vat.lat.1739, Cicero, philosophy
  85. Vat.lat.1740, Cicero, philosophy
  86. Vat.lat.1741, Cicero, Scipio's Dream, plus anonymous works bound in back
  87. Vat.lat.1744, Cicero, speeches
  88. Vat.lat.1745, Cicero, speeches
  89. Vat.lat.1748, Cicero, speeches
  90. Vat.lat.1751, Cicero, speeches, dated 1452
  91. Vat.lat.1753, Cicero, speeches
  92. Vat.lat.1755, Cicero, speeches
  93. Vat.lat.1756, Cicero, speeches
  94. Vat.lat.1758, Cicero, philosophical works, 15C
  95. Vat.lat.1759, Cicero, philosophical works, 15C
  96. Vat.lat.1760, Cicero On Laws, Plutarch Lives in Brutus translation
  97. Vat.lat.1761, Quintilian
  98. Vat.lat.1763, Quintilian
  99. Vat.lat.1764, Quintilian
  100. Vat.lat.1765, Quintilian
  101. Vat.lat.1768, Quintilian
  102. Vat.lat.1771, Quintilian speeches, dated 1459
  103. Vat.lat.1774, Quintilian speeches, dated 1455
  104. Vat.lat.1776, Latin panegyrics
  105. Vat.lat.1777, Pliny the Younger, Letters, 15C
  106. Vat.lat.1779, Josephus in Rufinus Latin translation
  107. Vat.lat.1782, Phalaridis et Bruti epistulae
  108. Vat.lat.1784, Poggio Braccolini: De varietate fortunae (On the Vicissitudes of Fortune, 1447)
  109. Vat.lat.1786, Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (Pius II), many key writings
  110. Vat.lat.1789, Epistulae 1-119 of Marsilio Ficino, as later published - Rome Reborn
  111. Vat.lat.1799, Thucydides, Peloponnesian Wars, Lorenz Valla's Latin translation; dated 1452
  112. Vat.lat.1800, ditto
  113. Vat.lat.1810, Polybius, 15C
  114. Vat.lat.1826,
  115. Vat.lat.1829, Aulus Hirtius, Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War, 15C
  116. Vat.lat.6719,
  117. Vat.lat.13619,
  118. Vat.lat.14749,

This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 119. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.

Delisle, L. "Notice sur les manuscrits de Bernard Gui," in Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque nationale et autres bibliothèques, XXVII, 2 (1879), 169-455. https://archive.org/
Klapisch-Zuber, Christiane. L’ombre des ancêtres. Paris: Fayard, 2000.

2017-06-19

Library Crime

Among the codices lately digitized and issued online by the Vatican Library is a volume, Reg.lat.716, that has been defaced. The rascal ought to be identifiable, since he seems to have left his thumbprints in the damaged opening initial:

This codex contains two works by the Late Antique theologian Lactantius, the Divine Institutions, incipit "Suscepto igitur illustrande veritatis officio...", and De Opificio Dei, inscribed to Demetrianus.

It is hardly likely the scribe, Nicolò de’ Ricci, is the fat-thumbed culprit, since he would not have been paid if he delivered work like this. (We know Nicoló was the copyist because he entered "Riccius scripsit" on the final page.) So could the culprit have been an uncouth owner? Or an unruly child? Investigators, to work!

Here is my latest list, with more additions in the pipeline this week.
  1. Borg.arm.18
  2. Reg.lat.44
  3. Reg.lat.456, on Saint Benedict, an 11th-century manuscript
  4. Reg.lat.461
  5. Reg.lat.465, lives of half a dozen French saints, 11th century
  6. Reg.lat.468
  7. Reg.lat.474
  8. Reg.lat.475
  9. Reg.lat.483, Life of St Dunstan, etc, 12th century
  10. Reg.lat.485, compendium (for the writing of sermons?), fully illuminated
  11. Reg.lat.491
  12. Reg.lat.492
  13. Reg.lat.573, Life of Saint Wandregisel (French: Wandrille) (c. 605–668), Frankish courtier, mon, abbot
  14. Reg.lat.574
  15. Reg.lat.609, annals
  16. Reg.lat.617, the remaining 68 folios of a 9th-century set of Frankish annals
  17. Reg.lat.618, Rudolf Glaber and Adoman
  18. Reg.lat.627, Johannes Rufus, History
  19. Reg.lat.629
  20. Reg.lat.632
  21. Reg.lat.634, church history compilation
  22. Reg.lat.643
  23. Reg.lat.645, lives of bishops Honorat and Hilarius
  24. Reg.lat.646, life of St Dunstan
  25. Reg.lat.650
  26. Reg.lat.655
  27. Reg.lat.682
  28. Reg.lat.684, Placido Raggazoni, 1574
  29. Reg.lat.716, Lactantius (above) with thumbprints.
  30. Reg.lat.718
  31. Reg.lat.723
  32. Reg.lat.732
  33. Reg.lat.747, eTK: Propter quid homines Homerus temporicanos vocavit (15c); .Alexander of Aphrodisias
  34. Reg.lat.748
  35. Reg.lat.786, eTK: Fabrica est continuata rerum trita (15c); Vitruvius
  36. Reg.lat.800
  37. Reg.lat.848
  38. Reg.lat.883
  39. Ross.847
  40. Sbath.144
  41. Urb.lat.1420
  42. Urb.lat.1427
  43. Urb.lat.1428; eTK. Cum inter seculi sapientes antiquitus (14c); also: Cum inter seculi sapientes antiquitates
  44. Urb.lat.1442
  45. Urb.lat.1455
  46. Urb.lat.1457
  47. Urb.lat.1458
  48. Urb.lat.1459
  49. Urb.lat.1462
  50. Urb.lat.1465
  51. Urb.lat.1470
  52. Urb.lat.1472
  53. Urb.lat.1473
  54. Urb.lat.1475
  55. Urb.lat.1477
  56. Urb.lat.1479
  57. Urb.lat.1483
  58. Urb.lat.1497
  59. Vat.ebr.612
  60. Vat.lat.1410; Justinian, Digest
  61. Vat.lat.1448
  62. Vat.lat.1632; Plautus compendium
  63. Vat.lat.1651; Pliny, Letters, a 15th-century manuscript
  64. Vat.lat.1689
  65. Vat.lat.1695, Cicero, De inventione
  66. Vat.lat.1698
  67. Vat.lat.1705
  68. Vat.lat.1709
  69. Vat.lat.1716
  70. Vat.lat.1717
  71. Vat.lat.1725
  72. Vat.lat.1732
  73. Vat.lat.1749
  74. Vat.lat.1770, eTK: Cum natura sublimis qui omnibus tribuit esse (15c); De mirabilibus mundi
  75. Vat.lat.1803, Poggio's Latin translation of Xenophon
  76. Vat.lat.1804
  77. Vat.lat.1841, Livy, Ab Urbe Condita
  78. Vat.lat.4651
This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 118. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.

2017-06-05

Comix

A kind of 11th-century comic book, with cartoon-style drawings showing successive scenes in the history of the church, such as the Ascension and the first six Councils, is a highlight of the newest batch of digitizations by the Vatican Library. 
Page through these outline drawings, which are economically colored by simple ink washes. The depictions of the councils place the Roman emperor and his retinue at the top, groups of clerics at center, and images of fallen heretics below, like this:

This codex contains the canon-law Collection in Five Books and other materials. At fol 303r is a remarkable arbor juris in the form of a rota:
The latest round of digitizations brings the online total to 14,128 items. Here are some of the novelties.
  1. Barb.lat.2182
  2. Ott.lat.2531 , HT to ParvaVox who notices this is another #Carolingian codex: the Annales Necrologici of Fulda kept and updated from 779 to 1065.
  3. Reg.lat.28
  4. Reg.lat.39
  5. Reg.lat.40
  6. Reg.lat.57
  7. Reg.lat.58
  8. Reg.lat.60
  9. Reg.lat.62
  10. Reg.lat.65
  11. Reg.lat.97
  12. Reg.lat.115
  13. Reg.lat.119
  14. Reg.lat.121
  15. Reg.lat.208, an 11th-century book for school use, with the Fabulae of Avian, popular for elementary Latin lessons and for classes in grammar as part of liberal arts courses. eTK lists the section beginning: "Electuarium ad omnia vitia stomachi quo utebatur Karolus rex."
  16. Reg.lat.228
  17. Reg.lat.231
  18. Reg.lat.240 , HT to @ParvaVox who notes the content of this #Carolingian treasure: the treatise by Florus of Lyons in which he attacked vs John Scotus Eriugena. @chaprot (Pierre Chambert-Protat, the expert on Florus) notes: Reg.lat.240 is a special one though because although we don't know where it comes from, it contains a letter of transmittal: 240 is the one and only witness of this letter, but it has lost the rubrica. We don't know to whom Florus wrote it! Thanks to @DigitaVaticana, every relevant witness of this work is now digitized and fully accessible on the internet.
  19. Reg.lat.242
  20. Reg.lat.249
  21. Reg.lat.259
  22. Reg.lat.262
  23. Reg.lat.264, 14th century. eTK lists section beginning, "A febribus Beneventanis que aut citissime." Fols 169r-186r contain Augustine, De opere monachorum
  24. Reg.lat.265
  25. Reg.lat.270
  26. Reg.lat.275
  27. Reg.lat.298
  28. Reg.lat.305
  29. Reg.lat.313
  30. Reg.lat.322
  31. Reg.lat.340
  32. Reg.lat.345
  33. Reg.lat.347
  34. Reg.lat.350
  35. Reg.lat.351
  36. Reg.lat.355
  37. Reg.lat.356 . HT to @ParvaVox on Twitter who recognized this is as beautiful 9th-10th-century glossed copy of Walahfrid Strabo's Visio Wettini from St Gall. HT @JBPiggin pic.twitter.com/1h2yNP0fkj
  38. Reg.lat.361
  39. Reg.lat.365
  40. Reg.lat.367
  41. Reg.lat.370
  42. Reg.lat.383
  43. Reg.lat.389
  44. Reg.lat.391
  45. Reg.lat.392, binding of several 15th century copies of philosophical works, the main one of which is Duns Scotus writing on John Sharpe, Quaestiones quodlibetales, probably in Advent 1306 or Lent 1307. eTK lists a section beginning, "Aliqui dicunt quod natura materialis se ipsa individuatur."
  46. Reg.lat.397, eTK lists a section beginning, "Cum animadverterem quamplurimos medicorum non solum iuniores."
  47. Reg.lat.401
  48. Reg.lat.403
  49. Reg.lat.409
  50. Reg.lat.414.pt.1
  51. Reg.lat.414.pt.2
  52. Reg.lat.415
  53. Reg.lat.420
  54. Reg.lat.428
  55. Reg.lat.429
  56. Reg.lat.437
  57. Reg.lat.431, 15th century, a mixed codex with penitentials, an order of the mass, some Augustine and other materials. eTK lists a section beginning, "Post naturam corpoream et incorpoream." Also: De animali
  58. Reg.lat.440
  59. Reg.lat.441
  60. Reg.lat.444
  61. Reg.lat.447
  62. Reg.lat.449
  63. Reg.lat.450
  64. Reg.lat.451
  65. Reg.lat.452
  66. Reg.lat.459
  67. Reg.lat.487
  68. Reg.lat.575
  69. Reg.lat.583
  70. Reg.lat.584
  71. Reg.lat.591
  72. Reg.lat.602
  73. Reg.lat.623
  74. Reg.lat.651
  75. Reg.lat.677
  76. Reg.lat.683
  77. Reg.lat.690
  78. Reg.lat.710
  79. Reg.lat.728
  80. Reg.lat.733
  81. Reg.lat.793
  82. Urb.lat.1007
  83. Urb.lat.1296
  84. Urb.lat.1302
  85. Urb.lat.1482
  86. Urb.lat.1679
  87. Urb.lat.1738
  88. Urb.lat.1752
  89. Urb.lat.1756
  90. Vat.lat.1301
  91. Vat.lat.1312
  92. Vat.lat.1319
  93. Vat.lat.1339, a rich 11th-century collectio canonum (see above)
  94. Vat.lat.1434
  95. Vat.lat.1441
  96. Vat.lat.1450
  97. Vat.lat.1555
  98. Vat.lat.1582
  99. Vat.lat.1584
  100. Vat.lat.1585
  101. Vat.lat.1601
  102. Vat.lat.1602
  103. Vat.lat.1603
  104. Vat.lat.1606
  105. Vat.lat.1607
  106. Vat.lat.1614
  107. Vat.lat.1616
  108. Vat.lat.1620
  109. Vat.lat.1624
  110. Vat.lat.1625
  111. Vat.lat.1629
  112. Vat.lat.1630
  113. Vat.lat.1633
  114. Vat.lat.1634
  115. Vat.lat.1635
  116. Vat.lat.1636
  117. Vat.lat.1638
  118. Vat.lat.1646
  119. Vat.lat.1648
  120. Vat.lat.1649
  121. Vat.lat.1652
  122. Vat.lat.1655
  123. Vat.lat.1656
  124. Vat.lat.1657
  125. Vat.lat.1684
  126. Vat.lat.1699
  127. Vat.lat.1700: HT to @gundormr who notes: 1700 is a nice 12th century copy (of Cicero) with some glosses. It looks as if the 1700 series below is mostly Cicero.
  128. Vat.lat.1708
  129. Vat.lat.1710
  130. Vat.lat.1711
  131. Vat.lat.1713
  132. Vat.lat.1719
  133. Vat.lat.1731
  134. Vat.lat.1736
  135. Vat.lat.1752
  136. Vat.lat.1754
  137. Vat.lat.13102
This is Piggin's Unofficial List number 117. If you have corrections or additions, please use the comments box below. Follow me on Twitter (@JBPiggin) for news of more additions to DigiVatLib.